This is an analysis of The Mind’s Diet by Oliver Wendell Holmes.

No life worth naming ever comes to good
If always nourished on the selfsame food;…

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Structure

  • Rhyme scheme: aabbcc aabb ddddeXffaaeegg
  • Stanza lengths: 6,4,14,
  • Metre: 1111010100 0111010101 0101111011 1111011101 111010101 0101011111 11001010101 1111010101 0111110111 11001010101 1011010111 0101010111 1101010101 1101011101 101100101011 1101010101 0101110101 1101110001 01110000101 1011010101 1111010101 1111010101 1101111101 01110010111
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Guessed form: heroic couplets
  • Stanzas: 3
  • Lines: 24